Author: katyusca
DCA Launches Instragram Channel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2013
DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS (DCA) LAUNCHES OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM PAGE
Find DCA on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram Under the NYCDCA Handle
Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced the launch of the Agency’s official Instagram page. The Agency’s newest social media channel will use photos and videos to provide information on programs, services, events and tips on how to be an educated consumer and business owner. For its inaugural posting, the Department uploaded its first #tbt (throwback Thursdays) image of a mobile unit used forty years ago to provide information about markets, consumer services, weights and measures, and “kosher law enforcement.”
Read the full press release: Instagram Launch
SI Advance on Gender-Pricing
Laundering shirts? Staten Island women will pay more
Malena Carollo | Staten Island Advance
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In an informal survey the Advance conducted of 30 laundry and dry cleaning shops in the borough, 19 charged more to launder and press a woman’s Oxford button-down shirt than for the same man’s Oxford.
Pricing based on gender is more than just frustrating at the register — it’s illegal.
Chapter Five of Title 20 in the New York City administrative code outlaws different pricing per gender and requires all prices be posted.
The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) enforces fair pricing.
“The most basic consumer right is one and the same with the most basic civil right: you cannot be treated differently based upon who you are,” DCA spokesperson Katyusca Abreu said in an email.
“That’s why Consumer Affairs is so vigilant about ensuring that all prices are posted,” Ms. Abreu said via email, “so people are all charged the same thing, and that those prices not be based upon a person’s gender.”
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Click here to read the full article.
NYDN on Small Business Fines
Business owners on Intervale Ave. in the Bronx complain of petty ticket blitz
Some say the summonses target Latino and black shopkeepers who don’t have the money or strength to fight. City says fines are for trash.
Tanay Warerkar | New York Daily News
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Store owners in the poor and majority minority neighborhood allege they are being targeted unfairly in a money-making scheme by city agencies because they don’t have the means to defend themselves.
A Department of Consumer Affairs spokeswoman denied the city was unfairly targeting the neighborhood.
“There is no truth to this at all,” said agency spokeswoman Katyusca Abreu. “Every retail business in the Bronx, and throughout the city, is subject to the same legal protections (the department) enforces to protect New York consumers.”
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Click here to read the full article.
DCA Charges Nine Used Car Dealers with Using Illegal Sales Tactics
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2013
DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS CHARGES NINE USED CAR DEALERS WITH USING ILLEGAL SALES TACTICS TO DECEIVE AND PRESSURE CONSUMERS TO PAY MORE THAN ADVERTISED PRICES
DCA Seeks More Than $950,000 in Consumer Restitution and Fines
Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced charges against nine used car dealerships for using deceptive advertising to lure consumers into their businesses and then using high pressure sales tactics to get them to sign contracts with thousands of dollars in unwanted add-ons and forcing financing through the dealership. DCA seeks more than $950,000 in consumer restitution and fines and the revocation of the dealerships’ licenses. The nine dealerships, which are located in Brooklyn and Queens, include Planet Automotive, Inc., six locations of Giuffre Motor Car Co., LLC’s, Northern Auto Traders, LLC, and Auto Palace, Inc.
Read the full press release: Used Car Dealers Charged
New Report Reveals Banking Needs of Three of NYC’s Growing Immigrant Communities
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 19, 2013
DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS RELEASES REPORT REVEALING BANKING NEEDS OF THREE OF NEW YORK CITY’S GROWING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
80 Percent of Immigrant Survey Participants Who Make Less than $300 a Week Report Savings
The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Office of Financial Empowerment today, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), released the Immigrant Financial Services Study Research Brief, which surveyed more than 1,300 immigrants from China, Ecuador and Mexico to deepen the City’s understanding of the financial service needs and behaviors of New York City’s diverse and vibrant immigrant community. It revealed that, while all three groups have savings, some have a longer pathway to banking than others, in part due to misperceptions about the process of opening a banking account and access to financial institutions. The Study is part of MOIA’s One NYC One Nation initiative to strengthen immigrant communities and was made possible by generous support from Citi Community Development and New York Community Trust.
Read the full press release: Immigrant Financial Services Study
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